High School Baseball 2006

[natedogge7]

LHP Tony Butler.

 

what can you tell me about him colby? I just saw his video on baseballwebtv. He looks pretty talented.

[colbyjack]

Check out his profile:

 

Brewerfan.net Tony Butler profile

 

I got to see him about a month ago now, and shot some video footage myself that should be up on BaseballWebTV's site within the next week or two. As noted in the profile, he's a great natural athlete with plenty of room to get better. Even if he doesn't add velocity, he's consistently 86-89, which is pretty good for a lefty, and his secondary stuff is pretty advanced.

[natedogge7]

his delivery sort of reminds me of david price when i saw his scouting video coming out of HS.

 

at 6'7, i think most likely he could add velocity. do you know where he roughly projected to go in the draft? In the bullpen video, the gun had him topping out around 91 or so.

[colbyjack]

Butler is roughly projected to go in the top 5-10 rounds on talent alone. However, northern kids are always overlooked to a certain degree, as much as places like Perfect Game and traveling teams like the Midwest Blazers are helping them gain exposure. His commitment to Arkansas probably means he's college bound if he slips past the top 8-10 rounds.

 

Dodger fans can take some solace if you like Butler in that they really seem to like midwest kids, from Hanrahan to Hammes to Billingsley to Elbert. Although that may lead them more towards another Ohio pitching prospect (who is rising quickly) in LHP Andy Oliver.

[GagneCY03]

CJ, how would you rate Jeffress' brekaing ball on the 20-80 scale? Also, does he throw a third pitch? Thanks.

[colbyjack]

I'm going to link and grab some comments taken from my observations of Jeffress of the Aflac games when my thoughts were fresh on my observations:

 

PG: Aflac Day 1

 

While Betances has a quiet confidence on the mound, Jeremy Jeffress (South Boston, VA) definitely allows himself to show his emotions on the mound. Armed with a heater that has been clocked in the upper-90s this summer, he started in the 90-91 range before dipping to 85-87. This is a trend that also continued during the Aflac game itself, again, which I will also get to later on. He has a slurvy breaking pitch that could use some more consistency, but it definitely shows promise.

 

PG: Aflac day 3

 

Jeremy Jeffress, whom the East were saving for the ninth, warmed up quickly and replaced Sullivan with two on and no outs. Pumping his fist into his glove repeatedly and getting big cheers from the crowd, Jeffress hit 94 on his first five fastballs, striking out Kyle Drabek in the process. He also threw an inconsistent but potentially dominant 79 mph slider. Unfortunately for Jeffress and the East, he never threw 94 again, as his velocity quickly declined to 91, 89 and 88 mph before settling at 87. The eighth continued to be a nightmare for the East, as Green reached on an error with a runner scoring, while another runner scored on a wild pitch. Shepherd then followed with a RBI single to right field, and Rapoport reached on yet another error. Bridges singled to left field on a good fastball by Jeffress to load the bases. Jeffress got Alcombrack to pop up to third base, but Chris Marrero dropped the ball in foul territory giving Alcombrack a new life (Marrero committed three errors in the inning). Alcombrack then walked in a run. Jeffress finally got a little bit of luck on his side, as he got a double play when Ryan Adams flew out to centerfield and the East threw to third base after Rapoport apparently had tagged and scored. The ump, likely tired due to the heat and length of the inning, called Rapoport out, even if the replay clearly showed he had tagged. With five runs scoring, the West seemed up for good, eight to four.

 

I've heard pretty much the same about Jeffress, but now PG's Who's Hot list and PG Crosschecker is reporting that Jeffress was hitting the mid to upper 90s deep into a ballgame recently. When I saw him he lost his velocity quickly, although that may have more to do with mechanics than actually hitting a wall. I'm skeptical of Jeffress to say the least, but we Brewers fans have been burned by a few hard throwing prep pitchers in the past (JM Gold, Nick Neugebauer, Mike Jones, and potentially Mark Rogers). It's hard not to like Jeffress when you watch him, as his arm is simply electric, but it would be equally hard for me to take him solely on his future promise.

[GagneCY03]

So, while his slider is inconsistent, it shows the potential of being a plus pitch? I can live with that. Thanks, CJ.

[GagneCY03]

Just want to mention that I'm a big fan of Clayton Kershaw, mostly for his makeup, and that I hope the Dodgers get a chance at drafting him.

[RCWarrior1]

GagneCY03,

 

Here's a little intel for regarding the Dodgers. Kasey Kiker was with the Area Scout at the Columbus Catfish game last night and the rumor is he is LA bound.http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif

[GagneCY03]

Interesting. Not his biggest fan but you cant ignore his stuff.

[natedogge7]

Quote:

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Here's a little intel for regarding the Dodgers. Kasey Kiker was with the Area Scout at the Columbus Catfish game last night and the rumor is he is LA bound.http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif

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great tidbit thanks! I like Kiker's stuff a whole lot. even though he is a midget, he is a midget that sits in the 90s and gets it up to 97 with a nasty change up.

 

I can see a gio gonzalez comparision here. Would Kiker be LA bound at 26 or 31? Sure as hell not 7 i would hope.

 

 

Also, it seems the make up issues have checked out with Kiker because I dont think Logan White would be drafting any kids this high unless their make up/background did check out.

 

 

RCwarrior, any other interesting news you can pass along our way? I have also found out that Logan White and Dodger's eastcoast crosschecker were in Florida to watch Colton Willems, so he might be on the way as well.

[GagneCY03]

Kiker's not exactly Gio Gonzalez. Gonzo was my fav prospect in '04 (Behind Homer Bailey) and Gio's delivery was very smooth. Kiker's is very violent. He has a better fastball, though.

 

I'd prefer Willems at #31 (For the Dodgers).

[colbyjack]

Kiker's delivery isn't violent, but he's still not a good comparison to Gio Gonazlez, who was (and is) built differently.

 

Dodger fans should be happy to hear themselves affiliated with Kiker. I currently have him among my top 30 prospects, so no matter where you take him (and I'm sure it wouldn't be the seventh overall pick) you're getting a good prospect. He's got a very good fastball, curveball and changeup, and he's one pitcher several of the top hitters in the nation (Chris Parmelee, Cody Johnson) have said is the toughest pitcher they have ever faced. He's hard-nosed and has some swagger on the mound to boot.

[IamTheIan]

Left handed pitcher Matt Petiton from Garden City, New York pitched a perfect game yesterday against South Side. I faced both Garden City(including Petiton) and South Side in the last two weeks and I believe I have some stuff I can tell you about Matt.

 

Fist of all, South Side isn't such a great team. They have one good hitter(he bats leadoff. Perfect Game gave him a rating of 6.5 or 7) I am not trying to take anything away from Matt. It is just that there are better teams that he has dominated so this shouldn't really shock anyone.

 

As for his stuff, when we faced him he wasn't at his best. He was throwing 88-89 all game but he touched 91 a few times. His curveball has a 1-7 break and he usually locates it well(it is usually in the low 70's, I believe). His changeup was pretty good at about 80. He did not have his best stuff when he faced us. He walked five(2 hits, one off the end of the bat that just got over the first baseman's head, and one liner to center) and came out after 6+ innings(in a 7 inning game).

 

He picked off two runners in the game but I felt that his move could be picked up pretty easily if you were paying close attention to how he worked on the mound.

 

Despite his lack of control, he still only gave up two hard hit balls the entire game. I lined out to left in the third inning and our cleanup hitter lined a single to center to lead off the 6th(he was taken out right after).

 

He started to lose his stuff(velocity drop, trouble locating pitches) in the fifth inning, so based on this one time I have seen him pitch, he looked like a future reliever to me(unfortunately I do not know how many pitches he threw. For all I know he was at 100 when he started to lose his stuff.). Obviously, though, his career is based on more than one high school start and I am no scout so don't count on what I say about his future role.

 

I have a couple of questions for you guys. Where do you think he will be drafted? Where do you think he would have been drafted if he did not commit to UNC?

 

In case anyone cares, I believe a scout from the Reds was at the game when he pitched against us. I am not positive though.

[natedogge7]

Quote:

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Kiker's delivery isn't violent, but he's still not a good comparison to Gio Gonazlez, who was (and is) built differently.

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who would you compare him to CJ? PG has some Kazmir comparisons for him but Kiker's breaking pitch isnt as good as Kazmir's.

[GagneCY03]

Kiker throws across his body with a good amount of effort. Not very appealing to me. I'd rather take Colton Willems at #31 (Assuming the Dodgers take a pitcher at #7 and a hitter at #26).

[fewgoodcards]

how would you compare kiker with travis wood?

[colbyjack]

I think Petiton could easily go in the top 2-3 rounds. He's a solid 3rd to 5th rounder, and if he slides past that I would bet he's UNC bound.

 

A good comp for Kiker? That's tough. Kazmir isn't fair because he was a superb overall athlete and worked in the mid-90s with ease (and had an absolutely killer breaking ball). Kazmir should have been taken in the top 3 in '02, and would be a top 3 pick in just about any draft (signability issues thrown aside).

 

Thinking of shorter lefties with good stuff, how about Mike Hampton? Again and as always, don't get too caught up with comparisons.

 

Kiker to Travis Wood might actually be a pretty good comp. Wood had a very good fastball-changeup combo coming out of HS, and had somewhat of a smaller, stockier stature (not the most projectable builds).

[IamTheIan]

Thank you very much for the response. I really appreciate it.